


The Bisons

by Novanii



Series: Runner [2]
Category: All Elite Wrestling, Professional Wrestling
Genre: Bad Puns, Conversation about Past Relatioships, Conversation about Sexuality, Featuring Adam's ex-girlfriend I made-up, M/M, Past Kota Ibushi/ Kenny Omega
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28674273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Novanii/pseuds/Novanii
Summary: It's a long drive, a later night, and Kenny has something on his mind.
Relationships: Kenny Omega/"Hangman" Adam Page
Series: Runner [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055381
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11





	The Bisons

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt sent by my partner, reply written by me.

**Prompt** : "You know," —Kenny lifts his head, weary, from the window and glimpses Adam, exhausted as he drives through the vacant streets of whatever city he'd managed to drive to without Kenny noticing— "you mentioned a girlfriend before?" An incongruous question, perhaps, but Kenny, truthfully, have wondered often about Adam's sexuality. and at three o'clock in the morning, he and Adam have to stay awake somehow: introspection it is. "Do you, uh, only like women? you don't have to answer—"

**A.**

A light waltz rolled from the radio in three-four time. A Strauss,  _ Künstlerleben  _ op. 316, written in 1867, a jovial, ‘gay,’ piece. Interjected into a Vienne at the edge of disaster as Austria crumbled around the carnival city. The song infused with a melancholic melody and yearning string instruments. The decaying nobility dreams of a glory day long past and danced the inevitable fall of their dynasty away. So, explained the smooth-voiced disc jockey that introduced the piece with all the confidence of a history nerd who probably got shoved in a locker in high-school. Adam wouldn’t pretend he was smart enough for the music of this genre. This station wasn’t his first choice. After five hours in the car, they had cycled through Adam’s playlists, Kenny’s playlist, and every other radio station on the air. Thirty minutes into a marathon of Norteña music, Adam cracked first and turned on the benign classical music, played on a public airwave. All just to eke out some variety from the bland monotonous strips of American highway and interstate. Besides, no words, and especially no Spanish that he only half-understood in his current state, meaning it required less brainpower to process. A resource that was in dwindling supply for Adam. 

Adam tapped his finger against the steering wheel in time with the waltz. Apparently, this was like old fashioned twerking. A dramatic, intimate dance where partners held each other close and danced vigorously. Despite the song being undeniably wonder bread white, Adam found a natural ebb and flow that sparked a desire to move in some way. Bob his head a little bit, tap his foot, all as he nudged the cruise control-up another notch. The car engine revved and the speedometer edged in at a solid eighty miles an hour. With no one else on the road, Adam dominated the left lane. It was a pure head rush, breaking the speed limit with no restrictions and no witnesses. All while listening to a playful violin trill. Brights on, illuminating the tall cedar, oaks, and pines, twined with dense underbrush on the sides of the road. The black, ominous trees walled the interstate, trapping them, forcing them the only way forward. The white and yellow marked pavement extended far into the twisted dark, with hints of gentle turns far off. A couple of miles down the road, twin red taillights glowed like angry eyes. The mapping program on his phone noted their exit was next. He compressed the breaks, the cruise control flicked off and Adam coasted onto the ramp. 

Kenny shifted, and the movement drew Adam’s attention for a split second. Kenny sat shotgun with the chair leaned back. His hands threaded through his hair and rubbed at his eyes. Best as Adam could tell he had spent the past three hours passed out and had not even been roused when Adam smacked him for snoring. In a moment or two, he was upright and alert, peering-out the window, his curly hair like the silhouette of a mop. Adam explained they were taking a diversion into Knoxville for the sole reason that Adam had to go pee. Kenny muttered his assent. 

Google Maps took them to a beat-up 24/7 gas station at the edge of the city. Moth riddled, flickering and humming, fluorescent lights illuminated the cracked pavement of the parking lot. Lined beneath the front windows were stacks of firewood, an ice machine, and a tire pressure gauge. Adam left Kenny to fill-up the tank while Adam lunged out of the car to make use of the facilities. Inside, an exhausted-looking twenty-something attended the counter and her phone. Over the top of the rows of junk food riddled shelves, Adam saw the bathroom. After taking care of his physical needs, on his way-out, he perused the aisles while Kenny took his turn in the Powder Room. He bought a couple of packages of cookies, crackers, and bags of chips. Then, a coffee for himself from a somewhat suspect machine and a bottle of 2% from the fridge for Kenny. Adam paid at the register and sipped on his caffeine as he stepped off the curb outside the station. Cars rolled by on the road, whispering with the heated Summer wind. Kenny, already back outside, stretched-out beside the car, his gold hair white-washed by the lights. Sliding into the front seat, Adam offered Kenny the milk on one stipulation: Adam could use it to thin his coffee. It turned out that he had purchased mud water. Kenny agreed and they were back on the trail, navigating the downtown and suburbia, in search of the road North. The street lights faded, and into this darkness, as Adam waited for a red light to turn green, Kenny began his thought: 

_ You know.  _

Greenlight, go, Adam, hit the gas and rolled through. For a second, once through the intersection, he glanced at Kenny. In the dark car, lit by the thin dashboard glow, Kenny peered at him, curious, but not pressing. There was a glimmer in his blue eyes. Adam returned his gaze to the windshield and the passing silver screen of Knoxville scenery. A right took them back onto the highway and Adam merged with the sparse traffic as he processed what Kenny asked him.  _ You mentioned a girlfriend before? Do you only like women?  _ Back on the smooth sailing of the interstate, Adam sunk back in his seat and sought comfort from the shitty coffee. It tasted bitter and yet smoother with the milk. 

“You asked me two questions, there,” Adam observed, lifting a corresponding number of fingers. It’d be easy to only answer one, Kenny wouldn’t force it. He resolved, tongue darting over his chapped lips, to answer both. He reached out and turned down the radio to but a couple of notches. “And uh, well, I guess, the answer to both is, it’s complicated.”

“I mean, yeah, these things usually are,” Kenny joked, he leaned back his seat a little bit and propped a foot on the dash. He glanced at the mapping program on Adam’s phone and the oppressive number of hours left, “We got time though, so take as much as you need. Like, I’m just curious is all, and if I keep sleeping in this chair I’m not going to be able to walk tomorrow, Piz.”

“Well, to answer the first question,” Adam chuckled. “I did have a girlfriend, once, back in college.”

“Ah, a college sweetheart–” Kenny teased. “That’s classic.”

“Yeah,” Adam chuckled. A fond smile spread on his lips. Like those arrogant, dancing nobles in Vienne, he thought of a time long gone. “We’re still friends, you know, we talk every now and then, meet-up for lunch or something, she’s married now, pregnant, with her first kid.”

“Okay, but that’s all past tense, what happened? Give me the details, man,” Kenny said. He interlaced his hands behind his head, shifting in the car seat. “I mean, if it’s not too hard, or anything.”

Adam shrugged, one shoulder up to his ear with casual dismissal. Maybe a few years ago it would’ve been ‘hard’ but things had changed. He had changed— or rather, something had changed around him. There was someone else now for him to be heartbroken over. The old stuff was all scars now, not wounds that leaked with the slightest prod. Not like they used to. 

“So, the deal is I went into college with like, two years of credit, yeah?” Adam said, he checked over at Kenny to make sure he was following. “You can imagine this kinda put me in a weird spot. I was a Freshman but also basically a Junior and I was taking the classes in my communications major right away. I didn’t make a lot of friends that way, though. So, yeah, she was a little older than me and her name was Caroline. Long black hair, dark eyes, kinda short, but pretty, she was an art student. We met in a drawing class I had to take for a 'fine-arts' credit, or whatever. And Kenny, holy shit, I have to show you pictures of some of the stuff she does, when we get to the hotel, it’s nuts. Like these hyper-realistic watercolor and oil paint portraits, that look even better than the actual thing. She works as a background artist in L.A., now, so she’s legit. Way better than anything I could do.”

Kenny hummed, low in his throat, and Adam took that as a cue to continue.

“So, we met in class, and, over the course of the next semester we got to know each other, really well,” he said. “Like, I was hanging out in her apartment to do projects and she was hanging out in my dorm. I moved in with her for my Senior year, after she graduated. She just needed a roommate, you know? And not long after that we just kinda started dating. I don’t know, it’s– it’s hard to describe, even now, how I felt about her. Like, just this intensity I never experienced before. I really thought I was sick, actually— like my stomach hurt. I called my mom and she told me I was a dumbass, and that I had a crush. It’s just that I was never interested in dating in high school. Like, I talked to girls and stuff, went to prom with one of my friends, but nothing like, you know?” 

Adam made an almost helpless gesture with his hand. From the strange, flutter of his fingers, he rested his palm on his thigh.  His other hand guided the steering wheel. Then, real quick, Adam focused on setting-up the cruise control again. If he had to compress the gas for the whole trip, his right hip would be sore as hell by the time they reach their destination. A couple of nudges and they were flying at a clean eighty again. Adam took that time to organize his thoughts. Kenny didn’t say a word, but Adam could tell he was waiting for the elaboration.

“I really thought,” Adam murmured, his voice softened, wistful. “That I was going to marry her. Like, I was going to jewelry stores, looking at engagement rings, trying to figure out how to save-up.”

“What, really?” Kenny asked, he leaned forward in his chair, elbows digging into the armrest. “Seriously, man?”

“Yeah, we dated for almost two years after I graduated,” Adam said. “I was working as a teacher and she was a freelance artist, it was really great. Of course, I was traveling a lot— on account of the wrestling thing, and she came to some shows, I don’t think she really got it? Caroline was sensitive, wouldn’t hurt a fly and she didn’t really vibe with fighting. Which is fine, I was fine with it. I mean she watched these soap operas that  _ I  _ didn’t get, so it was kinda even, you know? But I think all that time away from home didn’t do a lot of good for our relationship. You know I was young, Kenny, like twenty-two? And she– she got a job in California, and we talked about it, and—”

“Just didn’t work-out, huh?” Kenny asked, voice low. 

Adam shook his head, lips pressing together into a thin line. He still recalled that conversation over the dining room table. His hands interlaced in front of him, her on the other side, going through the logistics. She was so good at that, planning. That was something they shared in common, overthinking. This move was a dead necessity for her career. Virginia just didn’t have the same opportunities that the City of Angels did. Except, Adam was training in Virginia, fighting in Virginia, teaching in Virginia. It was the middle of the school year. He couldn’t pack-up and leave. The suggestion she came to was obvious but it didn’t make it easy. They break-up, go their separate ways, not try to force all of this to work to the detriment of them both. For years Adam cursed himself for agreeing. He believed as he laid in bed alone and cold, ruminating on his failures, he should’ve fought harder. Fought harder for them. Hung-up on what could’ve and should’ve been. It hurt more when she found a new guy in California. He still went to her wedding and was her best man. Because Adam still loved Caroline and he always would.

And he was okay with being next to her, because their relationship, their  _ bond,  _ was more important than his wounded pride. 

“Yeah, it didn’t work-out,” Adam agreed. “I was upset, for a while. A long while, actually, like, I really thought I’d never get another chance like her again, but—”

He paused and ended the thought there. Caroline was so amazing, so brilliant, so awesome, and funny, and caring and kind, and she loved  _ cats.  _ She picked out local art for their apartment. Yet, Adam also remembered her occasional moods where she just couldn’t be talked to until the storm passed. The way she set her mind on things was sometimes endearing, sometimes frustrating. She wasn’t perfect, but she was great. It was apples-to-oranges, to compare her and Kenny. They were completely different people and Adam loved different things about them— yet, it was still love. It couldn’t be measured or quantified. The only time he had ever felt this  _ intensity  _ before was with Caroline. He really didn’t think there was another person on this planet who could steal his heart like Caroline did. Then he met Kenny and fell in love with Kenny.

And whoops, there was at least one other. 

“You know, you live, you grow, you move-on,” Adam said, he shrugged again and nodded to himself. “If we hadn’t split I probably never would’ve gone to Japan, or met you and the Bucks. Or, joined AEW, never been the tag-team champion. It’s a real Robert Frost poem, I could be a teacher in L.A. right now, instead of— well, driving eight hours to Chicago in the middle of the night, but my point stands! I-I mean, I imagine you get it, picking between your career and well, sometimes, relationships.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get,” Kenny muttered. He looked out the window. His nails scraped against his jeans. “You know how it was with me and Ibushi. How leaving Japan felt. Especially after we reconciled after so many years— but that’s how it is.” He trailed off, they were leaving a lot of thoughts behind them on the road, Adam thought. If he glanced in the rearview mirror he could see them vanish into the dark. 

“So, like, were you two ever,” Adam interjected. He glanced over at the same time Kenny did. Adam darted his gaze back to the road, feeling his cheeks heat and rosette. A deep appreciation for the late hour filled him. “I mean, like, I don’t know how to ask this. Were you and Ibushi, you know, together? Like, together, together? Obviously, it’s not my business, but I’m just, just curious, is all. Like, the _ Golden Lovers _ , man? There’s some crazy rumors out there.”

Kenny laughed a full chuckle that churned Adam’s stomach and yet set his face on fire. That sound made Adam feel warm, he wanted to hear it again  _ desperately. _ “Yeah, Kota and I dated. We were together for like four years, and yeah, like you, if same-sex marriage was legal in Japan, I would’ve married him.”

It was such an upfront statement. If he could, he would, but the lack of a ring on Kenny’s left finger told Adam he  _ didn’t.  _ Kenny nodded to himself but the silence lingered, the sentence wasn’t finished. The clock turned over to 3:23 and they passed an exit with bleeding, gold lights, with hotels, restaurants, and street lamps. 

Kenny continued, but his voice was softer and rawer. “But then— well, I screwed it up. I mean, I _ really _ messed up. It wasn’t like you and your girl, where it was a pretty understanding with a clean break. I didn’t trust him like I should've. I thought he was going to leave me and so, I left first. Then like an  _ idiot,  _ I lashed-out and ruined everything we'd built, and it ended. Just. Like. That—” Kenny snapped his fingers, like a gunshot— “We never got back together but, we’re friends again, we made-up, you know that, but the things I did, the things I did to  _ Kota— _ it’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life.”

The night covered Adam’s expression. The darkness was a comfort. It hid the monsters in the back seat. The purr of the engine whispered in the absence of Kenny’s scathing indictment of himself. Like, he was judge, jury, and executioner, of his own tarnished soul. Adam could imagine what Kenny saw. His face in profile, the tree line whipping by the car windows, an impassive, emotionless, and neutral party, listening without comment to Kenny’s story. He wouldn’t see the slight grimace or twisting of Adam’s lips. Remembering all the shit Cody said about Ibushi. Adam, twisting Ibushi, Kenny’s arms back, while Cody reared with a chair. Holy fuck, was he such an embarrassing idiot, a complete moron, a destructive piece of shit. If Kenny saw the guilt in Adam’s eyes their conversation would screech to a sudden halt. Akin to if Adam slammed the breaks on the car right now. Instead, Adam allowed Kenny to mourn and didn’t derail to his own bullshit. It was the only way he would’ve heard the next bit, whispered into open air. 

“He really was the first man I loved.”

Kenny sighed and leaned back into his seat, defeated, limp. Now, Adam realized, it was  _ definitely  _ time to shift gears. Car analogies aside, Kenny couldn’t be left to ruminate. If there was a person who understood how much it sucked to obsess over an old ex, it was Adam Page. 

“So, you’re like, gay?” Adam asked. He placed both of his hands on the wheel. Shifting, he rubbed his fingers over the rubber and plastic, feeling the coarse texture. Sweat pricked his palms and he heard his pulse skip, skip, and then it was off to the races. “That’s cool by the way, I’m totally cool with that, I mean—”

“Close, but actually, I’m bi,” Kenny said. He chuckled and then nudged Adam’s elbow with his hand. The brief, familiar contact enabled Adam to crack a grin. “Bisexual, guys, gals, non-binary pals, it’s all good to me. I know I don’t talk about it a lot. It’s not something I really like to have out there, circulating. It could cause problems in Japan, and it’d be a whole thing, but I trust you. We’re partners, and, it’s—" He paused, holding the _'s'_ sound long— "It's kinda something I want you to know, actually.”

Adam grinned to himself and nodded along with Kenny points. He straightened in his seat, wiggling his butt back so his shoulders were flush with the chair. With a crick of his neck, he popped a vertebra with a satisfying ‘ _clunk.’_

“Yeah, I was, actually going to say,” Adam began, he swallowed. “I uh— I am too, bi, I mean, like I think I am. I haven’t _tested_ it but, I’m, pretty sure. Likw, I haven’t… done anything, with a guy, before? I just have these feelings? Right, you know how it is.”

“Yeah,” Kenny said, drawing out the syllable. Adam could hear the smile in his voice. “I know how it is. I know, I get it, it’s all in your chest, right?” Kenny moved his hand over his heart to indicate what he meant. “You see a guy and it all kinda clicks in your brain, the same way it does for a girl. I get it.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever really told anyone that,” Adam breathed.

Kenny shifted and his chair cranked upright. A fleeting, fluttering touch on his left elbow drew Adam’s gaze down. Kenny placed his hand on the center console between them, palm-up. He wiggled his fingers, an expectant invitation. Adam steadied his grip on the steering wheel and wiped his right hand down his jeans to clean the sweat off. He laid his hand in Kenny’s and Kenny interlaced their fingers, then squeezed. Adam wondered if Kenny could feel his stuttering pulse through the connected vital points of their wrists. Or, if he minded that Adam’s hands were damp. Yet, his nerves and troubled thoughts soothed, mostly to a stream of ecstatic proclamations about how he was holding hands with Kenny. 

“I appreciate you being honest, Piz,” Kenny said. “I know it’s hard. Especially, when maybe you don’t have all the answers, but I’m glad you’ve figured some of it out. I mean, personally, I don’t think I  _ knew  _ until I was in my twenties— how about you?”

“Not long,” Adam admitted. Feelings, ideas since he was in high school, but nowadays he was totally certain. He rubbed his thumb over Kenny’s knuckles. Kenny had long, thin fingers, but a strong grip. Adam could feel his coarse callouses. The warmth of his hand. “In a way, I always knew, this has always been a part of me. It was Caroline who helped me figure out the name for it, though.”

_ So, you’re bi, _ Caroline had said and Adam had stared at her like he was an idiot. Anytime Adam was around Caroline he felt like an idiot, but only because she was so smart. She had laughed at him and sipped on her soda— a sugary replacement for her usual beer. They sat outside on the porch, in the cool Spring air, a rare balmy day at the outskirts of Los Angeles. She told him she was pregnant. He told her about Kenny. It was a fair exchange until Caroline asked him to be her kid’s godfather,  _ or something similar, or whatever _ . And Adam had actually started crying, like a total sap.  _ Yeah, yeah, of course, that kid’ll be the best fucking horse rider this side of the Mississippi.  _ She patted him on the shoulder and told him she’ll be cheering for him and Kenny. Next time she watched AEW— because she did that every now and then these days. 

She really liked Sonny Kiss and Adam always knew she had good taste.

“She sounds great,” Kenny noted.

“She is,” Adam agreed, nodding. “If you ever get to meet her, I’d think you’d like her.”

Adam cocked a slight grin. Something was lighter in him, the air a little clearer. It felt better, it felt right, to say it. Adam Page is bisexual, he likes guys  _ and  _ girls, and other stripes of human beings. It was the only way he could feel what he felt for Kenny. Exactly like it was for Caroline. Stomach full of butterflies, every emotion magnified to a soul-aching need, so Adam was raw and on edge. This terror, nausea, built like a screaming tea-kettle, into an agony that demanded a release to relieve the pressure. This time, though, Adam found no outlet. Caroline was the one who asked him out first, to the movies, to see  _ The Avengers.  _ He remembered sitting in the darkness of the theater, alone and sweaty until she laid her head on his shoulder. Caroline who confessed first and who drew-out of Adam the depth of his feelings. Now that Adam thought about it, it was Caroline who texted first, Caroline who called first, Caroline who kissed first. Caroline broke it off first. Adam Page was not known for taking the initiative in his relationships. Yet, he always figured it out, caught-up learned and followed her lead. If he could just do the same for him and Kenny— that was a pipe dream so obscure it almost made Adam scoff.

He couldn’t ruin another good friendship, he just  _ couldn’t.  _

Adam was running out of bridges to burn. 

“You know, it’s weird,” Adam said. “Because it’s like, I’ve never done anything, with an uh, you know— a man before. The opportunity has never really come up. I just kinda wonder, how am I supposed to know these feelings are real?”

“Well, I don’t know if I can answer that one for you, Page,” Kenny said. “But I definitely didn’t  _ know  _ until I met Ibushi. Then, it was really obvious. Yet, I always had a sense of it.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Adam murmured. He squeezed Kenny’s hand and Kenny squeezed back. 

He definitely got it. At first, in the infancy of these feelings, he’d thought they’d die or go away, like a bad head cold. Because Kenny _Fucking_ Omega could never love Adam Page. They were not in the same league, the best wrestler in the world, and the weak link of the Elite. Then they were tag-team partners, and absence is not what makes a heart grow fonder, presence is. Long car drives, where they shot the breeze about anything and everything, just like this. Hours spent chilling in the same hotel room, showing each other stupid memes, or watching TV together. Plane flights spent with their heads stacked on each other and complaining about the pressure change. Working-out in the weight rooms and spotting for each other. Training together, practicing the Last Call ‘till they got it right and didn’t fucking hit each other anymore. The longer Adam spent with Kenny Omega, the more certain he was that he loved him. 

Loved him in a way he’d only felt once before. Loved him in a way that was different than how Adam felt about his mother. It was love, 100% all the way, love. True love— _wove, twue wove_ , to quote a good movie and all that sappy shit. Love that had all sorts of implications not just for his relationship with Kenny but Adam’s relationship with himself. How he understood himself and who he was. At twenty-nine years he was uncovering more and more about the person of Adam Page, the Hangman. Most of it, Adam didn’t like. Some of it, he did like, and he did like loving Kenny. Even if all he got to do was hold hands and talk. 

“There’s a pool at the hotel,” Kenny said, suddenly, breaking Adam from his introspection.

“Yeah?” Adam asked. 

“Yeah, I checked it out earlier,” Kenny said. “Listen, after we pass-out for a few hours, you wanna go swimming? Of course, there’s the weight room and all that, we can do a few sets, blah, blah, blah, but I wanna go swimming too.”

“I didn’t pack swim shorts, did you?” Adam laughed. He had to wiggle his hand free, unfortunately, from Kenny’s grip so he could make a lane change. 

“Bro,” Kenny stated, and Adam could feel Kenny’s eyes drilling into the side of his face. Intently focused, and deadly serious, “We have large, ample salaries as the Tag-Team Champions of AEW that can fix that problem.”

“Fair point,” Adam admitted. He shuffled his hands on the wheel a little bit and then cracked a big grin. “But yeah, I’m down to work-out, I need to work on my  _ bi _ -ceps.”

Silence, total silence, Adam shot Kenny the most shit-eating grin. For a moment Kenny stared at him, wordless as if processing that nuclear bomb. Adam had to return his eyes to the road. Then, Kenny smacked Adam’s shoulder. Adam laughed and then laughed harder when he heard Kenny break into chuckles. 

“Do you think Tony Khan will let us change our team name to the _ Bi _ sons?” Adam asked.

_ “No _ ,” Kenny wheezed, his voice strained. He covered his eyes with his hands, shoulders shaking. “No, I don’t think so.”

In the wake of the laughter, Adam settled. Kenny leaned back in his seat and despite his fear of cramps, was dozing in a few minutes. Dawn broke before they hit Cincinnati, their mid-point stop, a brilliant glow of purple, pinks, and golds on a distant blue horizon. It was right to Adam, to park on the 3rd level of the deck and to haul all their shit out of the car. Check-in, bleary-eyed at the front desk, and then shuffle into the elevator, with a bagel, stolen from the breakfast bar, wedged in his mouth. Brush his teeth in the bathroom. kick off his shoes and pants, and then flop into bed. He vaguely recalled Kenny telling him 'good morning' before they fell asleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> For the record, when I wrote the first draft of this I made Caroline's name 'Amanda.' Which, some of you may know is the real-life name of Stephen Woltz's wife. I don't know if it was just a coincidence or if my subconscious made a connection— either way, it got changed because while I play fast and loose with kayfabe, I don't play that fast and loose.


End file.
